Stay Cation resting

For the last couple of weeks I have been on vacation, I needed a break and it was good to take a break. On Monday I am going to get back into the kitchen and start thinking about Thanksgiving! We have a group that comes down every year to spend a week building, visiting orphanages and doing ministry there and also particiapate on the base. So I am going to get everything super organized so we can have a big delicious but not too stressful Thanksgiving holiday here in Ensenada.

I actually have spent a lot of Thanksgivings during my life working that day whether it was in the Navy, working in a casino, and during my days of Mercy Ships. Some were pretty fun actually, others were just memorable. My favorite thanksgiving during my Navy days was the one in McMurdo Station Antarctica, we all participated in the kitchen and the meal was great. I was in the Bakery that time and I think I made about 350 pies pumpkin and pecan. I can't think of a "fun" thanksgiving working in a casino, but I do remember once at the "Clarion" working from 11 in the morning till about 2 the next morning, I was in the employee cafeteria and I came in and worked my shift, stayed late for the guy who was on swing shift, he wanted to spend the time with his new girlfriend, and then at 11 pm the graveyard shift cook didn't show up so I stayed till 2 in the morning until the coffee shop sent someone in to relieve me. The thing I remember the most is that around 12:45 in the morning I was so mentally tired and ready to go and Conan O'Brian was on the TV in the Employee dining room and I saw Conan's visit to a modern day indian reservation to see how things are going for the Indians since that first Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims. They filmed it at a GIANT Indian Casino and I was about to lose it I was laughing so hard, it was really the mental exhaustion though. My favorite Thanksgiving during Mercy Ships was when we had made an emergency trip to Nicaragua after hurricanes in 1998, we delivered relief supplies and visited a community we had spent 3 months working with that was almost destroyed completly by a 10 foot mudslide. On our way home we did thanksgiving, it wasn't really a celebration, it was more of a time of thanksgiving for how blessed we really were and there was also such a spirit of Unity on the ship during that whole time period. Anyhow, what I am trying to say is that I am really looking forward to this Thanksgiving and I am excited to see how it turns out and I look forward to an awesome time together as a base.

Joseph and Emily have been having a good beginning of the school year, Joey is really settling in at his new school, does homework just about every afternoon right after school and Emily is doing great and gets cute remarks and smiley faces in her school book that the teacher writes in every day No red or blue stickers for Emily.

Misty really enjoyed her visit home and time she spent at the Ladies retreat, it was good for her to see friends, and she really heard from God during the retreat as well.